According to info from Ocaholic.ch, AMD is still working on an R9 280X version based on an updated Tahiti XTL GPU which should be ready sometime in November and silently replace the R9 280X currently running on the Tahiti XT2 GPU.

AMD apparently plans to do a "running change" which means that there will be no announcements for the new GPU or even a name change for the R9 280X graphics card and the only way to differentiate these cards is to check out the BIOS version. As always, these rumors should be taken with a grain of salt since nothing is carved in stone and AMD can simply use the new GPU to launch a new graphics card under a different name but currently AIB partners have been told that it will be a running change.

According to the same source, Tahiti XTL should have a lower power consumption and thus cooler. Unfortuantely, it is still not clear if there will be any specification changes, higher clocks or changes in the feature set. Eventually someone will spot it when it hits retail/e-tail in November.

AMD recently introduced the “new” Radeon R9 280X graphics card and we all know that this is just a renamed HD 7970 GHz Edition which is based on the Tahiti XT chip.

We wonder how consumers would have reacted to a mere rebrand had it not been for AMD AIBs who actually did all the heavy lifting by coming up with interesting non-reference cards. Sapphire is no exception and we can say it did a very good job with the Toxic R9 280X.

As soon as we unpacked the card we were impressed by two things. First of all there’s the exciting Tri-X cooler which uses three sophisticated aerofoil section fans (a pair of 90mm fans with an 80mm fan in the center) and the huge heatsink intersected by 6mm, 8mm and 10mm heatpipes. This is clearly a very elaborate design.

The second unique feature that caught out attention was the high factory overlock. At 1150MHz the Sapphire’s Toxic card is the fastest R9 280X to roll out so far. The reference GPU clock is 1000MHz, while the memory runs at 1500MHz. Sapphire also tinkered with memory clocks, but we’ll get round to that in our review.

The stylish shroud is designed not only to look cool, but to manage the airflow over the card for the best possible cooling performance. At factory clocks, which are substantially higher than reference clocks, we saw the GPU go up to 76 degrees Celsius, which is a pretty good result for an overclocked GPU. What’s more, even when it heats up, the Toxic R9 280X does not get very loud.

Last week we tested the XFX DD R9 280X 1000M, which is more quiet, but it’s a reference clocked card. Once it’s overclocked to 1150MHz, it ends up louder.

The new cooler, along with a high performance 10-phase power management system and high quality components such as the Sapphire exclusive double sided Black Diamond chokes and long-life solid capacitors, enables the card to deliver stable higher power levels while keeping temperatures on the safe side.

On the back side of the card you will find a nicely designed backplate. The cooler is oversized, it's bigger than the PCB, but at least it's a dual-slot design. The exact dimensions of the Toxic R9 280X card are 308(L)x113(W)x41(H) mm,

The card will need two 8-pin power connectors for normal operation, but extra power is needed only for heavy overclocking, when you try to squeeze the last ounce of performance from the GPU. Sapphire's Toxic card is a beast - although it's already overclocked to 150MHz, we managed to push the clock up by another 100MHz, ending up at 1250MHz, or 25% more than the reference clock. We are confident that it is possible to hit even higher clocks, but this is just a preview and we'll give it another go later on.

There is also a dual BIOS switch which provides compatibility with UEFI and non-UEFI systems.

The back plate features one HDMI (with 3D), two mini-DisplayPorts, one single-Link DVI-D, and one dual-Link DVI-I.

Although we didn't have time to run plenty of benchmarks, we decided to check out what the Toxic R9 280X can do in the Unigine Heaven tessellation test. Nvidia's GTX 770 is traditionally somewhat faster in this test and no HD 7970 or R9 280X card could come close, at least not until the Toxic R9 280X joined the party.

We were concerned that AMD’s Never Settle bundle has met its maker and that it might be a thing of the past. Many have noticed that the new Radeon R9 280X and other Rx200-series cards are not coming with the well known Never Settle bundle. On AMD’s Never Settle Forever website we read that the bundle only covers Radeon 7000 series and not the new series.

The good news is that we got official confirmation that Never Settle is coming back to the Rx200 series. AMD Vice President of sales Roy Taylor went on the record confirming that AMD plans to reintroduce the bundles as apparently they get the job done. We lack many details about the bundle pattern as currently Gold reward means you get three games, Silver means two and Bronze is a single game and they depend on the card you choose. We expect a similar deal with future cards and on top of that there’s the limited BF4 bundle for flagship cards.

Despite a quite large investment in these bundles on AMD’s part, reports from Europe and the USA are suggesting that the bundles did help AMDs sales, especially in the higher end market, and the bundles definitely point to a wind of change in the way graphics card manufacturers are doing business.

XFX has launched a special Radeon R9 280X with non-reference cooling and it’s called "XFX DOUBLE DISSIPATION RADEON R9 280X 1000MHZ BOOST 2GB DDR5 GHOST2 THERMAL DUAL MINI DISPLAYPORT HDMI DUAL DVI or Part No.: R9-280X-TDFD". Of course, we won’t use the official name in the rest of our review for obvious reasons.

The R9 280X is part of the latest AMD generation of graphics cards known under the Volcanic Islands codename, but it’s not exactly new. The new portfolio of Volcanic Islands graphics cards consists of the Radeon R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X, R7 250X and R7 240, and two more yet to arrive are Radeon R9 290X and R9 290. Of course, other Pro versions are probably in the works.

This time AMD decided not to launch the fastest cards first, opposite to what we saw with the two previous generations. What many of you already know, all the “new” cards with exception of the R9 290X and R290 are actually rebranded, retweaked and newly priced products from the current HD 7000 series.

Following the new naming scheme the Radeon R9 280X was previously known as the HD 7970 GHz Edition. Because the same Tahiti GPU is on both cards performance difference between the R9 280X and the HD 7970 GHz Edition will be insignificant.

AMD’s new naming scheme is not all that great, but it’s also not hard to understand and remember. If you spot R9 within the card name it will tell you this is an enthusiast grade product, and the R7 prefix denotes a mainstream product.

Note regarding the R9 enthusiast grade products are yet to come and the R9 290X and R9 290 will be only and truly new enthusiast graphics cards based on the new Hawaii GPU. However, the HD 7970 earned a rock solid reputation for being great for gaming and relatively light on your credit card. We believe gamers will continue to adore the R9 280X due to its attractive price point. Both the R9 280X and HD 7970 GHz Edition are now available for about 280 euro. However note that the HD 7000 cards are getting some interesting discounts, so some better deals may be available.

AMD gained plenty of attention with its various gaming bundles, but unfortunately we have some bad news for gamers who are still keen on the Never Settle voucher program, which includes three free games. AMD decided, at least for now, not to include the game voucher with R9/R7 series graphics cards. We are confident that with this marketing the stock of HD 7000 cards is soon to be emptied.

So, XFX is also playing the no-Never-Settle-voucher game, but at least it has made some important design changes to the PCB and came up with a new cooler, thus making its Radeon DD R9 280X 1000M card very attractive.

The R9 280X is based on the 28nm Tahiti core (4.3 billion transistors) which features 32 compute units and 2048 stream processors based on Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. Next to that we have 32 raster operation units (ROPs), 128 texture memory units (TMUs) and six 64-bit memory controllers meaning 384-bit memory interface connected to GDDR5 memory. All in all we have exactly the same set of components presented in the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. DirectX 11.2 is supported along with OpenGL 4.3 and AMDs own new low level programming interface known as Mantle (which is also supported on all AMD cards with GCN).

XFX Radeon DD R9 280X 1000M runs at reference clocks. This set the GPU clock at 1000MHz while GDDR Memory ticks at 1500MHz (6000MHz effectively).The R9 280X card is strapped with 3GB of GDDR5 memory, which will be of much use to gamers running at resolutions above 1920x1080.

During its latest event AMD also announced the new TrueAudio feature. This should allow hardware-accelerated audio processing in the GPU, but developers have to code its games and applications to support TrueAudio and not all older cards will support it. There are three upcoming games, Thief, Murdered and Lichdom with support for the TrueAudio. With the ability to process over a hundred independent audio streams in real time alongside with the game or application processing it will be possible to incorporate great audio effects e.g., positional data to audio sources.

Sadly, the fact that only GPUs based on the upcoming Hawaii chip or on the Bonaire chip can use TrueAudio. This means from the whole range of current graphics cards only the HD 7790 and R7 260X (both based on the Bonaire core) support TrueAudio.

R9 280X does not come with TrueAudio, but due to lack of games or apps created with support for the TrueAudio we do not really care at the moment. However lack of the TrueAudio can be seen as drawback in the future, but who knows, it might not be relevant in this card’s product cycle. It all depends on developer support.

The packaging for the R9 280X 1000M has the same dimensions as the rest of XFX’s HD 7000/6000/5000 offer – it is small and sturdy. However the visual appearance is now changed more the way of being classic old school design, which is good.

In order to deal with a relatively hot GPU, the card comes with a powerful second-generation Double Dissipation cooler – a cooler with a special heatsink and two fans. When we heard that XFX is working on a new cooler we could not wait to give it a go in our bench rig. Why? Because AMD's own cooling solution for the R9 280X did not end up as quiet as we all hoped it would be.

Just to refresh your memory, XFX was among first to hit the market with a non-reference HD 7970 graphics card. The card featured high factory overclock but thanks to Ghost Thermal Technology and XFX's first-generation Double Dissipation cooler, GPU thermals were kept in check and on top of that our ears were threated more gently compared to the reference cooler. The Double Dissipation cooler on the HD 7970 managed to provide good cooling while keeping noise levels at a reasonable level; it was not completely silent but it was close. However standards have now changed and users simply demand quieter coolers. This has a lot to do with Nvidia, which really raised the bar with its latest generation reference coolers and the Titan cooler in particular.

AMD managed to create a new reference cooler for Volcanic Islands which is significantly quieter compared to the previous generation, but as we already noted it is not silent. However it looks like all AMD partners have decided to implement in-house designed coolers for the R9 280X and we will not see reference cards in the shops.

XFX also has its own cooler which design borrows from the reference one only in that it takes a small amount of AMD’s traditional red color to create nice diverging effect for the fans and the cooler is two slots high.Ghost 2.0 Thermal design is the key factor for better cooling performance and it is a substantial design evolution from the original Ghost thermal design introduced in 2012. XFX opted for this technology because it allows airflow to cool the heatsink as well as other components on the PCB. As you know, overheated components and even an overheated PCB can also reduce performance. The new design includes a bigger dissipation surface, which is achieved by extending the cooler's height one and half centimeters over the standard size.

The Radeon DD R9 280X 1000M draws power via a 6-pin power connector and another 8-pin power connector. You will find a 6-pin to 8-pin power converter in the package.

Because the cooler’s size extends over the standard size XFX decided to use lightweight polycarbonate construction which also ensures high durability and heat resistance. A new two-piece design protects PCB components from damage and dust and results in a beautiful, modern industrial design. The shroud house two IP5X Dust Free 85mm low profile fans. XFX opted for two fans that push air downwards, straight at the heatsink. As a result, some of the heat may be released inside the case so you might want to make sure your in-case airflow is adequate.

Both fans share the same 4-pin power connector. Setting the RPM manually is a breeze using AMD’s Overdrive or any other popular utility like MSI Afterburner or PrecisionX.

The card has two dual-link DVI outs, one standard HDMI and two mini DisplayPort outs. Next generation 4K (4096x2160) and UHD (3840x2160) resolutions are supported. You can also combine any combination of display connectors.

The bracket design includes the XFX logo which actually helps increase airflow, however it is not very important for the Double Dissipation cooler because this cooler features an open cooling design.

The card comes with two CrossFire connectors and it is possible to combine it with the old HD 7970. Actually you can use any combination of HD 7970 / HD 7970 GHz Edition / R9 280X cards.

On the next pictures you can see how the Radeon DD R9 280X 1000M manages heat dissipation. The cooler is held in place with four screws only, but we didn’t notice any instability or vibration. If you decide to take off a cooler from the PCB, it will void the warranty. Sadly, the rear of the PCB features no backplate, which is not important for the performance but would make overall design much more visually appealing.

The PCB length is 26.7cm while the card with the cooler measures 28.4cm. Aside from the GPU, the fans are in charge of cooling hot components on the PCB too. XFX decided to use the baseplate to strengthen the PCB and provide better cooling for the memory chips and MOSFET. All the memory modules at the front of the PCB are tucked away underneath the reinforcement plate. XFX used high quality components such as solid capacitors and ferrite core chokes.

XFX DD R9 280X 1000M is equipped with extra power phase IC's thus going up from the standard 5 to 6 phase power setup. With this card, XFX is reaching out to overclockers, too, by unlocking voltages. It is advised not to go over 1.256V for the Asic (default voltage is 1.144V).

The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Elpida and they are specified to run at 1500 MHz (6000 MHz GDDR5 effective).

The new Double Dissipation cooler uses six heat pipes and Fin-Grid arrays of heat dissipaters, all of which are strategically custom positioned to ensure the most effective and efficient cooling working in unison with the evolved fans. The 6mm heatpipes are curved so they don’t protrude from the cooler at any point.

The welds between the heatpipes and aluminum fins are accurate and look like they’ve been done very well indeed.

XFX’s new Double Dissipation cooler does a great job and manages to keep noise very low. We could hear the fans under load but they were anything but loud. The DD R9 280X 1000M is quieter than the GTX 770 and it’s much quieter than the old HD 7970. We did not notice any sudden fan speed fluctuations, either. The GPU temperature goes up to 72 degrees Celsius during intensive gaminig and that is great taking into consideration the relatively low amount of noise.

The XFX DD R9 280X M1000 card is reference clocked, meaning 1000MHz for the GPU and 1500MHz (6000MHz effectively) for the memory. Most buyers probably won’t feel the need to overclock the card, as it already has enough muscle to cope with current generation games, provided the resolution isn’t too high.

However, there are those who will overclock it for fun, or just to show off, in which case it’s what we call overcocking rather than overclocking. Still, there are a number of gamers who might need a bit more performance, at 1440p or 1600p.

In any case XFX did a clever thing by unlocking the voltages and allowing users to squeeze out more performance. The Double Dissipation cooler comes in handy if overclocking is what you’re after. It does its job very well on reference clocks and cooling an overclocked GPU is not an issue for this cooler either.

On stock voltages we were able to achieve only average overclocking results. It could be simply that we were not lucky and we got the GPU which was not willing to work on higher frequencies. However, we then decided to play around with the voltages and after a slight increase we got much better results. MSI’s Afterburner tool (version 3.0 beta 15) works with the DD R9 280X 1000M and allows users to change GPU/memory voltages with relative ease

Without a voltage increase (default 1144mV) we achieved 1065MHz on the GPU but after the voltage increase to 1256mV we scored 1150MHz. We achieved a memory nice overclock of 20 percent (from 6000MHz to 7200MHz) without increasing the voltage.

XFX actually has two bios versions for the card. The second bios, which is practically the overclocking bios, will be available online and it will allow users to flash the bios from Windows or DOS. With the so-called OC bios we managed to get marginally lower results compared to our first run, in which we adjusted the voltages manually, using Afterburner. However, we also noticed a few side effects, such as increased power draw and higher GPU temperature.

With the default bios on reference clocks the GPU voltage does not go over 1.18V.

The OC bios went to 1.25V, even on reference clocks. At the same time the GPU was hotter and the fans were a bit louder.

On the other hand, the OC bios allowed us to boost the clock by 130MHz, while the default bios ran out of steam at 65MHz. We are of course talking about stable clocks, but in some games we could go up to 30MHz higher.

Low GPU overclocking headroom could be the reason XFX is binning GPUs and keeping the better ones for Black Edition cards.

Power consumption is a little bit lower compared to the HD 7970 GHz Edition cards. However we do not see no significant improvements over the previous generation.

It is not secret that the Radeon R9 280X is actually a renamed Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition card. Its performance is clear proof that the cards are practically identical. Of course, the price cannot be different, either.

Both cards are currently available for about 280 euro or 299 dollars, but this will change very soon, mainly because the stock of HD 7000 generation cards will not last long, especially when consumers realize that they’re not going to get Never Settle freebies with R9 cards.

Right now the HD 7970 GHz Edition looks like a better choice because we can find some good deals and it also includes Never Settle vouchers for three free games. The Never Settle voucher is currently not available for the new R9/R7 series graphics cards but we suspect this will change as HD 7000 inventory is depleted.

Although the GPU hasn’t changed, XFX did a pretty good job at making its new 280X special. First of all we must admit that DD R280X 1000M is one of the best looking dual-fan graphics cards we’ve seen so far and on top of that it is one of the quietest HD 7970/R9 280X – it might be the quietest, but we still haven’t tried out enough 280X cards to be sure. The icing on the cake is great cooling performance, as we measured only 72 Celsius degree for the GPU.

There’s no reason to waste much time commenting performance. We are all already aware of what the old HD 7970 GHz Edition was capable of and the R9 280X is more or less the same card. Gaming at high resolutions is not a problem, not even in some of the most demanding titles out there.

The card is reference clocked, but the overclocking potential is not among best we have seen. With a voltage increase we achieved an additional 150MHz for the GPU, which isn’t bad, but it’s still not very good, either. Memory overclocking was much better.

If you have HD 7970/ HD 7970 GHz Edtion and you want more performance you can use the R9 280X in CrossFireX mode.

In conclusion, we liked the Radeon DD R280X 1000M, mainly thanks to its great cooler. Overclocking headroom may be limited, but a very quiet cooler that does a great job keeping the GPU and PCB chilled is something we always appreciate. Great cooling also helps longevity and keeps components from dying, so we’re not surprised to see XFX offering a lifetime warranty on Double Dissipation cards. The price is relatively attractive as well. It’s currently available for about €280, but once more retailers start carrying it we could see some even lower prices. Bear in mind that Never Settle freebies are still not available with Rx200 cards, but AMD told us that bundles will be back.

As expected considering that AMD has finally lifted the NDA veil from at least a part of its Radeon R9 and R7 series lineup, Powercolor has announced its own lineup with a total of five different SKUs including R9 280X, R9 270X OC, TurboDuo R7 260X OC, R7 250 OC and R7 240 OC.

Based on custom designs, the R9 sereis include two SKUs, the R9 280X and the R9 270X OC. The R9 280X works at 850MHz base and 1000MHz Boost GPU clocks and features Powercolor's own custom cooler that should bring 10 percent lower temeperatures and should be up to 15 percent quieter thanks to its ultra-big 92mm fans and unique SSU-shape heatpipe design. The R9 270X OC works at 1030MHz base and 1080MHz Boost GPU clocks as well as a dual-slot single fan cooler that should keep it well below reference design in terms of temperatures and noise.

The R7 260X is quite an interesting graphics card considering it features Powercolor's TurboDuo cooling solution with dual-slot double fan design. This one works at 1160MHz GPU clock and comes with 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6.6GHz and paried up with a 128-bit memory interface.

Powercolor also announced two overclocked R7 250 and R7 240 graphics cards. The R7 250 OC works at 1100MHz base and 1150MHz boost GPU clocks while 1GB of GDDR5 memory ended up clocked at 4.6GHz. The Powercolor R7 240 OC works at 750MHz base and 800MHz boost GPU clocks and packs 2GB of DDR3 memory clocked at 1800MHz.

Powercolor definitely has some interesting graphics cards and we will definitely like to see how well those coolers perform. You can check out Powercolor's full lineup here.

Sapphire is one of AMD's AIB partners that has launched a full lineup of recently introduced R9 and R7 series graphics cards including the R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X, R7 250 and the R7 240. To be precise, Sapphire decided to announce no less than 13 different SKUs, including members of its famous Dual-X, Vapor-X and the Toxic series.

Sapphire's R9 series will include a total of six SKUs including three R9 280X SKUs and three R9 270X SKUs. What made most of the Sapphire fans quite happy is "the return" of the famous Toxic series with the R9 280X Toxic that will work at 1150MHz base GPU and 1100MHz Boost clocks while 3GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 384-bit memory interface will be clocked at 6400MHz. Judging by the picture, Sapphire's Toxic R9 280X will feature a custom triple-fan cooler as well as a custom PCB with 10-phase VRM.

The Sapphire R9 280X will also be available in Vapor-X and Dual-X SKUs, both with custom dual-fan coolers. The Vapor-X R9 280X will work at 950MHz base and 1070MHz Boost GPU clocks while memory will be clocked at 6200MHz. The Dual-X on the other hand has a slightly lower 870MHz base and 1020MHz Boost GPU clocks while the same 3GB of GDDR5 memory is clocked at 6000MHz.

Sapphire's R9 270X series will be pretty much the same as the R9 280X series with three SKUs including Toxic, Vapor-X and the Dual-X SKUs. The Toxic R9 270X SKU will feature 1100MHz GPU base and 1150MHz Boost clocks while 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface will be clocked at 6000MHz effective. As expected, the Vapor-X and Dual-X R9 270X SKUs are clocked lower so the Vapor-X R9 270X ended up with 1050MHz base and 1100MHz Boost clocks while memory works at 5800MHz and the Dual-X does not even have Boost option so it works at only 1020MHz base clock with memory clocked at lower 5600MHz.

Sapphire's R7 lineup is even more extensive with a total of seven SKUs including single R7 260X 2GB SKU, two R7 250 SKUs and four R7 240 SKUs. The most interesting part is the R7 260X one that will feature 896 stream processors, 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 128-bit memory interface and hit the perfect US $139 price range. The R7 260X is the only currently announced graphics cards that will have support for AMD TrueSound and Mantle API. Sapphire's R7 260X OC SKUs is clocked at 1150MHz for the GPU while memory ended up at 6600MHz.

Two R7 250 SKUs are quite interesting since Sapphire decided to go for a 2GB DDR3 equipped SKU while second one will feature 1GB of GDDR5 memory. Both feature 384 stream processors and a 128-bit memory interface. The R7 250 2GB DDR3 SKU works at 1000MHz GPU base and 1050MHz boost clock while memory ended up clocked at 4600MHz for the 1GB GDDR5 SKU and 1800MHz effective for the 2GB DDR3 version.

As noted earlier, the Sapphire R7 240 series will include four different SKUs with 1, 2 or 4GB of DDR3 or 1GB of GDDR5 memory. All four will feature 320 stream processors and work at 730MHz base and 780MHz boost clock, in case it is equipped with boost and feature 128-bit memory interface.

Sapphire definitely has most SKUs on the market and we are glad that at least some of those will be a part of Sapphire's Vapor-X, Dual-X and even Toxic series.

The first reviews of AMD’s new 200-series Radeons are out, but most of the samples have a familiar bit of silicon under the bonnet, so they are not exactly new.

The R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X are out and AIBs are announcing low-end R7 250 and 240 cards as well. The 280X and 270X are based on Tahiti silicon and they are priced at $299 and $199 respectively. Although this might sound steep for old, rebranded parts, bear in mind that their predecessors launched at $499 and $349.

So what has AMD done to breathe new life into these Tahiti cards? The 270X is based on the Curacao XT, which is basically the Pitcairn XT part used in the HD 7870 GHz Edition. The clocks are somewhat higher, 1050MHz GPU and 5600MHz memory. It supports DirectX 11.2 and AMD’s new Mantle API.

The R9 280X is based on the same Tahiti core used in the HD 7970. The clocks are a bit higher, 1GHz vs. 925GHz for the GPU, while the memory was bumped from 1375MHz to 1500MHz.

The $139 R7 260X is a Bonaire XTX card, so it is practically a revamped HD 7790. The GPU clock was upped from 1GHz to 1.1GHz, while the memory went up from 6GHz to 6.5GHz. It’s got Mantle support, too.

So what are the reviewers saying? Well for the most part the response is positive, but they were hardly swept off their feet, since these are hardly new products. In case you’re on a tight budget, scouting for discounted HD 7970 and HD 7870 cards might not be a bad option. However, they won’t be around forever and once they go out of stock the rebranded ones will take their place.

Although we’re not fans of rebrands, the price points are attractive and the reference coolers appear to be better and quieter than the ones used in the 7000 series. While they don’t offer much of a performance gain over outgoing cards, they are competitively priced and they are somewhat faster. More importantly, they are faster than most Nvidia cards in the same price range.

No surprises then, we'll have to wait and see how the 290 and 290X perform and more importantly, how AMD decides to price them.

AMD did a great job keeping Hawaii under wraps and even ten days after the first official announcement we still don’t have the full picture. We don’t know the official pricing or the spec, although there are quite a few leaks. However, now it appears we finally have the spec, courtesy of Akibahara.

The R9 290X spec was more or less out there for weeks, but it could not be confirmed. It has 2,816 stream processors and the GPU clock is “up to” 1GHz. Compute performance is 5.6 TFLOPS and it has 4GB of GDDR5 5Gbps memory on a 512-bit bus, no surprises there.

However, the R9 290 spec was not leaked nearly as much and we have to say it looks rather impressive. It has fewer stream processors, just 2,560 and a lower clock – 947MHz max. The memory and the bus appear to be the same and performance wise it can hit 4.9 TFLOPS, which is pretty good.

On paper, it should end up about 10 percent slower than the 290X, which doesn’t sound bad at all. However we still don’t know the price for either of them. Newegg leaked a $729 R9 290X last week, but we are still not sure $699 will be the official price. Looking at the rest of the line-up, the R9 290 should end up significantly cheaper. The R9 280X is priced at $299, leaving plenty of room for the 290 to fill. If AMD doesn’t go nuts with the pricing, it might be the weapon of choice for many gamers.

Videocardz.com managed to snag some pictures of the rumored Asus ROG Matrix R9 280X platinum graphics cards that will feature quite a decent factory overclock, top of the line cooler as well as high-quality 20-phase Digi+ VRM.

Since it is practically revised Asus' HD 7970 Matrix, since the R9 280X is still based on the Tahiti GPU, the new Asus ROG R9 280X Platinum also features all the bells and whistles seen on the previous series, including TweakIT, ProbeIT, fan switch and dual BIOS features as well as the impressive triple-slot dual fan cooler.

The card should end up with 950MHz base, 1100MHz Boost GPU clocks and pack 3GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6GHz and paired up with a 384-bit memory interface.

Most partners will come up with their own custom designed versions of the R9 280X graphics card and Asus' ROG R9 280X Matrix will certainly face some stiff competition, but in any case, it will definitely be one of the "premium" R9 280X graphics cards on the market.